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Professors adapt to students' needs with electronic extras
(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)MUNCIE, Ind., Mar 31, 2006 (Daily News, U-WIRE via COMTEX) --Eight years ago, Paul Buis put a small digital recorder in his right shirt pocket, hit play and began lecturing his class. When he finished, the Ball State University associate professor of computer science took the recording and uploaded it into his computer, compressing the file to conserve hard drive space. He then uploaded the file to his Web site and sent an e-mail to students notifying them the day's lecture was ready. The students downloaded the file over their dial-up Internet connections -- allowing them to hear the professor speak from the comfort of their homes as they reviewed the material.
The students liked the taped lecture, Buis said, so he continued doing it. What Buis didn't know was his pioneering efforts would become a craze unlike any experienced before in the media.
Today Buis' recording is called an educast, or an educational audio/video recording posted to the Internet and available for download on demand. The method is a technological stepchild of the popular podcasting trend, which uses the same technology for entertainment purposes. The method of information sharing has jumped from the ear buds of pop culture to the speakers of America's higher education classrooms.
In late January, Apple Computer publicly launched "iTunes U," a free service that distributes universities' podcasts through Apple's popular iTunes interface. The program, previously in beta testing for a year and a half, marked another milestone for the popularity of podcasts -- not only as entertainment -- but as infotainment.
Experts and educators say any success of educational podcasts is the result of an appeal to on-the-go students living in an on-demand culture, not any particular new technology. But with previous technological innovations leaping from pop culture to the classroom, critics -- including educators -- say the tool might not be helping students as much as some think.
TECH
Buis' reason for recording those lectures was simple: Because, he says, he could.
Ease of use, experts concur, is one of the simplest explanations for educasting's success. It allows easy distribution and consumption -- a perk to both the sender and receiver of the message.
Scott Stocker, director of Web communications for Stanford University, said the school was a pilot outlet for Apple's iTunes U when development started a year and a half ago. The program has since launched into two dimensions: One for academic purposes and the other for public and alumni use. iTunes U is integrated with about 20 undergraduate courses at Stanford through the campus' course management system, Stocker said.
Stocker said two developments have occurred since the original iTunes U program started. The first is the addition of vodcasts, or combined video and audio recordings available for download. The second feature Stocker describes as "enhanced podcasts," where a professor can link visual displays to certain points of audio, similar to a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.
"We think it'll be really effective on both the public and the academic side," Stocker said.
For Penny Craig, the only previous technologies podcasts compare to in terms of educational popularity are the video disk and VHS tapes.
"They were a lot more cumbersome," she said. "It took a little longer for it to happen than the podcast."
Craig, the digital portfolio support and iCare Corner manager for Ball State's Teachers College, said podcasts' ease of creation and distribution help technology to grow into an educational tool. That growth, though, depends on an institution's resources.
A group of Ball State students majoring in electronic art and animation have created podcasts that can be downloaded from Apple iTunes store for free. To find the podcasts, search for "BFA in Electronic Art" in the iTunes store.
Some educators are not as likely to take hold of the podcast trend, Craig said.
"Change is always difficult for faculty because they are unsure of themselves often times," she said. "It's difficult to change practice."
As Keith Politte, development officer for University of Missouri-Columbia's School of Journalism said, "Our kids are digital natives -- we're just trying to meet them where they already are."
ON DEMAND
Universities are leaving the details of instructional podcasts to individual professors -- though professors tend to refer to the broadcasts as learning enhancements, not class replacements.
Stocker said his school was experimenting with models. Academic administrators at Stanford are paying close attention to class participation and attendance in response to podcasts, as the classroom experience remains the most important interaction at the school, he said. Even with technological growth, Stocker said, it was important the school remain true to its educational mission.
"This is definitely being looked at as a way to enhance the academic experience -- not a way to replace lectures," Stocker said.
O'Neal Smitherman, vice president for information technology at Ball State, said the choice to podcast, if at all, was the instructor's.
"Each professor must make the decision that best suits their teaching style and the content they must convey," he said.
And that decision relies on innovation and creativity -- something that varies from instructor to instructor and institution to institution.
Politte said Missouri works on educasts not solely for classroom download but as an uploadable interaction as well. Students in a Spanish class are creating digital movies and recording sound bites to upload to iTunes U, he said. Then, professors can download and evaluate students' language usage privately or in front of the whole class.
"We migrated from a text-centric experience to something more with multimedia," Politte said.
VALUE
Not everyone is fond of the technology's use in the classroom -- and that includes the innovators.
"Clearly showing up for class is better than listening to a podcast," Buis said. "You're going to get more out of it -- whether or not you interact."
Buis, eight years after his initial audio recordings, said he did not see a true reason for podcasts and recorded lectures because students stopped showing up for class.
"In retrospect, there's no value [for podcasts] versus showing up for class," Buis said. "They would hear my voice, they would hear every word I said, but they wouldn't see the diagrams I drew on the board."
Craig said the difference is, by and large, the contrast between active and passive learning.
"The learning is different when you're interacting with text and audio than with people," she said. "There's a lack, or can be a lack, of personal interaction when you simply listen to or just watch something -- compared to when you're in a classroom and a teacher calls on you."
Critics and supporters of educasts are stuck in a difficult spot without any solid evidence of the technology's benefits or hazards. Politte said anecdotal proof existed that students were going to class more because of podcasts.
"They can participate in discussions in class," he said. "Knowing they can go back and listen to the notes."
It's a matter of multi-tasking, said Victoria Szabo, Stanford academic technology manager for the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education.
"Students really enjoy having lectures and other course material available online," she said. "They like being able to multi-task and review using the files. They especially appreciate the portability."
Others agree, saying it's almost a necessity for students to control their media consumption schedule in what Politte describes as a "remix culture." It's about a great popular culture standard of getting content when a user wants.
Daniel Terdiman, a C|Net News.com staff writer who covers podcasting, said he couldn't really see any negative values.
"If you had to look at it from a control of content perspective, it's all about that these days," he said.
Today's generation of college students is familiar with controlling content consumption, as part of an on-demand culture, Melinda Messineo, assistant professor of sociology at Ball State, said.
"Students like to prefer Web sites with smaller chunks of information, with visuals," she said. "It's only problematic if it limits your ability to process longer chunks of text and arguments."
Politte said Missouri's School of Journalism wanted students to be able to communicate through multiple media to help relate to this change in media consumption. And podcasting, as with any technology, is just another way of innovating to meet this need.
"Anything that has value as a communications tool is applicable to all sorts of applications -- including education," he said.
Above everything else, professors and experts agree technology cannot replace the interaction between students and instructors -- it can only be used to enhance it.
"It's all about learning," Politte said. "Technology is just a tool."
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